TikTok Update— Back On Line After Last Night's Trump Branded Drama And Chaos

TikTok was only down for a few hours in the U.S. last night and this morning before service was restored right after Trump issued this on his social media site and ByteDance posted on Twitter that Trump’s post had provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans.” It still isn’t available for download in Apple and Google’s app stores though.

Trump was bribed by corrupt billionaire Jeff Yass to change his mind

The Associated Press reminded its readers that “During his first term in the White House, Trump issued executive orders in 2020 banning TikTok and the Chinese messaging app WeChat, moves that courts subsequently blocked. When momentum for a ban emerged in Congress last year, however, he opposed the legislation. Trump has since credited TikTok with helping him win support from young voters in last year’s presidential election…In the nine months since Congress passed the sale-or-ban law, no clear buyers emerged, and ByteDance publicly insisted it would not sell TikTok. But Trump said he hoped his administration could facilitate a deal to ‘save’ the app.”

On Saturday, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to create a new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok’s U.S. business, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Perplexity is not asking to purchase the ByteDance algorithm that feeds TikTok user’s videos based on their interests and has made the platform such a phenomenon.

Other investors also eyed TikTok. “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary recently said a consortium of investors that he and billionaire frank McCourt offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash. Trump’s former treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, also said last year that he was putting together an investor group to buy TikTok.

Yesterday, AOC, one of the House 33 Democrats who voted against the ban last summer, explained what bullshit the “intelligence” was that was sent out to gullible members of Congress to persuade them that Tik Tok is a national security threat. “I can tell you that what was presented to all of the Members voting on this thing was not very compelling. There was no real information that was a smoking gun or anything specific. In fact, high ranking members on the House Foreign Affairs Committee came to me after and were pretty surprised. They were genuinely expecting there to be some real or compelling intelligence shared that would substantiate the argument. And there just wasn't. Additionally, this bill, which is very large and substantive in terms of its impact, came to the Energy and Commerce Committee, was marked up, and then brought to the floor in a matter of just a few weeks— which is very, very fast.”

Like most progressives, AOC’s point was that “the degree to which corporations surveil the American people without genuine consent— and without real mechanisms for opting out— should be illegal. Point blank, period. So many of us, naturally, said: The answer is not just playing endless whack-a-mole with apps. We should have real privacy legislation in the United States. We should help people have greater agency over their personal information so that they're not being spied on all the time, whether it's a domestic company or a foreign company. To which, of course, big tech and their lobbies are going to fight against. So they just target an app instead of targeting the problem.”

Taking her lame colleagues to task, she noted that “when this thing was passed, all these legislators who supported it were like, ‘Oh it's not a ban, it's not a ban— it's just a forced sale!’… Well, they provided very little time for that to happen. For an app that big… like, who's going to buy TikTok? Hello? It's very large… I would say that the lack of forethought and the rushed nature of this bill is now evidenced by the fact that both the Biden and Trump administrations are looking to see if there's any way to reverse or stall it.”

These were the smart Democrats who ignored Hakeem Jeffries’ novice team and ignored AIPAC's lobbying to shut TikTok down and voted against banning Tik Tok in the first place— nearly all progressives:

• Jamaal Bowman (NY)

• Cori Bush (MO)

• Greg Casar (TX)

• Joaquin Castro (TX)

• Danny Davis (IL)

• Maxwell Frost (FL)

• Chuy Garcia (IL)

• Robert Garcia (CA)

• Al Green (TX)

• Val Hoyle (OR)

• Jonathan Jackson (IL)

• Sheila Jackson Lee (TX)

• Sara Jacobs (CA)

• Pramila Jayapal (WA)

• Sydney Kamlager (CA)

• Ro Khanna (CA)

• Andy Kim (NJ)

• Rick Larsen (WA)

• Barbara Lee (CA)

• Summer Lee (PA)

• Zoe Lofgren (CA)

• James McGovern (MA)

• Gwen Moore (WI)

• AOC (NY)

• Ilhan Omar (MN)

• Mark Pocan (WI)

• Ayanna Pressley (MA)

• Delia Ramirez (IL)

• Rashida Tlaib (MI)

• Juan Vargas (CA)

• Nydia Velazquez (NY)

• Maxine Waters (CA)

• Nikema Williams (GA)

Let’s keep in mind that the demand for a forced sale of TikTok, particularly under the guise of national security, should raise significant concerns about the abuse of government power and its alignment with corporatist interests— two tendencies associated with authoritarianism and fascism— especially when you consider that the push for a sale involves Trump cronies aiming to acquire the app. Sounding much like manipulation of state power for private gain? Remember how early on under the the Nazi regime, Jews were forced to sell their companies to Aryans?

Today, this tactic should be seen as leveraging government authority to reshape the market for political and economic ends, bypassing normal regulatory or competitive processes. It echoes some of the classic authoritarian dynamics where government and business interests are intertwined to consolidate power and suppress dissent. Actions like this undermine trust in governmental processes by politicizing national security concerns. It sets a dangerous precedent where the state could seize or force the sale of any company it deems undesirable— an unsettling prospect for any business operating in the U.S.

If this issue involves crony capitalism, with Trump allies waiting to profit, it paints an even starker picture of corruption. It would illustrate how power can be wielded to shift wealth and influence into the hands of a favored few, weaponizing state mechanisms to reward loyalty and punish opposition. This kind of behavior should alarm anyone concerned with democratic norms and the fair operation of markets.